The Wanderer Of Worlds
by randompandemic
Summary: On the run from her abusive stepfather, one Alice Liddell stumbles into an entirely different world. Talking animals, upside down castles and a furious Queen that sentences her to death for no apparent reason. But Alice finds an involutary ally in Captain Hook, as both try to escape the madness that is Wonderland...
1. Prologue

_**Prologue**_

_Off with her head! Off with her head! Off with her head!_

They were cheering it on and on as she was being led down towards the scaffold by six red playing cards. There was no way on earth to accurately describe the sheer insanity of the scene. Here she was, in the court of the red castle, surrounded by talking animals – ostriches, horses, rabbits, pigs, hounds, cows… - and human sized playing cards. Above them on the balcony she sat, the Red Queen with her red hair in a gigantic up do, wearing a formidable red dress and surrounded by her subjects, one more curious of the execution than the other. And surrounding the scaffold: Heads. Many, many heads, the bodies long removed but the heads still lying around. Her bound hands wandered up to her throat. She actually liked her head a fair bit. Sure enough though, she liked it right where it was.

She was being pushed up the wooden steps towards her executioner, a tall man in black leather, leaning on an enormous battle axe that was already covered in the blood of those that had come before her. Blood staining the dry sand in the courtyard a deep red.

As she was pressed to her knees, the Queen rose.

"Alice Liddell. She has been put on trial and found guilty and has been sentenced to death by beheading!" she declared. Alice groaned.

"I still don't know _what_ I have been found guilty of…" she mumbled to herself.

"Never mind, no one really does." her executioner spoke in a muffled, Irish accent as he leaned a bit closer to position her head comfortably on the log.

"She has any last words?" the Queen asked loudly. Alice looked up sceptically. _Now_ they let her speak?

"Really just… be careful with the hair, I just dyed it a few days ago." She said, looking up at her executioner. It was hard to tell if he had humour, what with his face covered by a black sack. The crowd continued their cheering, hungry for blood, in ecstasy with the excitement and anticipation of her imminent death. And then her order resounded loud and clear.

"Off with her head!"

Alice braced herself for the end, eyes closed, drawing in a deep breath. She always knew she had it coming one way or the others. Live hard, die young. Her executioner raised his axe and –


	2. The Portal Jumper

**Author note:** So, my first story is up! Kind of proud that I am starting with this. It is a bit of a darker take on Alice in Wonderland (is that even possible? To go darker with Alice in Wonderland than 'Alice in Wonderland'?) and somewhat independent of the OUAT Wonderland we've been introduced to and this has nothing to do with the spin-off that I heard will be coming.. The Red Queen is not Cora, it is a different woman but later I will also introduce Cora as Queen of Hearts (because she is too badass to miss the opportunity) ^^ Chronologically, Hook has been travelling with Milah for about a year.

This started with a friend challenging me to write something about Hook that has nothing to do with the classic popular ships (Captain Swan, Hooked Queen, Hookriel… so I picked my favourite twisted fairy tale, Alice in Wonderland, and Milah, because she is so far the only one we have seen him truly romantic about. Wonderland because I love the pun 'Alice and the Pirates' (the Japanese fashion brand) and love the idea of Alice running into a band of pirates during her visit to Wonderland and eventually kind of becoming a pirate herself. What should you expect? Fun, I guess, quite some adventures, some perhaps unexpected takes on Wonderland characters, Jefferson (a lot of Jefferson, hurray!), Killian Jones = Peter Pan grown up and no one will convince me otherwise, a jealous Tinkerbell, a ridiculously sassy Milah (haters to the right, I like Milah and I am not ashamed to admit it!), a not so very amused Alice, and a hopefully in character Hook (I find him incredibly complex and challenging and that is great fun to write!). I don't think I will get him and Alice romantically involved (might change my mind depending on how the chemistry evolves and how loyal Alice will be to Milah) but I think they will definitely be at least kind of a Doctor/Donna-esque BroTP. What you should NOT expect is overflowing smut because I don't like it when the story gets lost in that. I am a storyteller, first and foremost. So if you're looking for a smutty Captain Hook fic, then you came to the wrong neighbourhood.

* * *

**The Portal Jumper**

She never believed in miracles. Or in fair treatment. Why should she? Fair would have been if their mother had actually bothered caring for them. Fair would have been if she could have finished school instead of watching out for her little sister. Fair would have been if they had normal parents. Fair would have been if her father had been given custody after the divorce. But he hadn't because he had come out as gay, and having a gay single dad was apparently considered worse than having an alcoholic single mother. She had a child with another man after that – Alice's little sister Carol – but that didn't last long. And now they had an abusive stepfather. Really, the only miracle ever to happen to Alice and her family was that they never ended up on a weird reality TV-show. She had grown up hearing mostly people who claimed to love each other scream at each other. When she got older, she couldn't cover her ears anymore, because she had to cover her sister's ears instead. Carol cried so much as a child. And they truly only had each other.

Alice Liddell was 18 when her mother died, drunk out of her mind and driving, firmly wrapping the old car around a tree. And for the first time, a household full of screaming was silent. Carol was 10 then, an age at which most children probably wouldn't know of such horrors, but she did. The police investigated, but they didn't really care.

Custody went up for debate. She knew by the time the state would have decided what to do with them, it would be too late. Besides, what good could possibly come from this? An uneducated 18 year old and her little sister. Carol would end up in the system, in a foster family. And Alice? God knew.

So she made a choice. The only logical choice she could think of. Pack their bags and get the hell out. Their father lived right across the country, somewhere with his partner in a nice home, probably with a dog. That was what she guessed from the cards they got each year for Christmas and their Birthdays. It was by no means ideal, but it was better than whatever was in store for them here. So when their stepfather was out, they packed and ran. Carol was so scared. Alice squeezed her little hand but the girl kept crying. At some point, they were not even out of their town, Alice had to turn towards her and shook her by the shoulders.

"You want out of here, don't you?! You think he's going to stop just because he doesn't have mom anymore? He's going to start beating you and me too, do you want that?!" she yelled at her crying sister. She knew she wasn't being fair, knew she was scaring the girl. But she had to get her out. That was all that mattered. And she was almost certain they were missing their only chance to get out. She saw the car pull over, saw him get out of it, staring at them in disbelief. She heard him yell her name, furious. So she grabbed Carol's hand and ran. Ran for her life and for her sister's life. She stumbled off the road into the bushes, running like crazy. She heard him behind them, screaming their names, sounding like a rampant beast, like he would rip them to shreds if he got his paws on them. And she had no doubt that he would. Carol was crying, her feet hardly touching the ground anymore. Alice felt her own heart race, so fast it was almost jumping out of her chest, painfully so. Her lungs were on fire. The suitcase was heavy, slowing them down; she actually considered leaving it there. She was dizzy, probably because she couldn't get enough oxygen in her system anymore. Everything around her was turning, she was disoriented. Carol yelled her name through tears. She heard music, his annoying redneck music she hated so much. And then she fell. She didn't even know what she had stumbled over but it felt like she was falling forever and when she hit the ground, it was night.

Alice flew around, lay on her back in disbelief. It had been early afternoon literally two minutes ago, now she lay in the pitch black, stars in strange constellations above her and a forest around her. A forest. Not some bushes and fields. She was out of breath, chest moving heavy. She still felt dizzy, had to close her eyes for a moment. There was a paper taste in her mouth and…

_Carol_.

She shot up instantly – a terrible idea really because she felt sick to her stomach and it was a miracle she didn't throw up the grilled cheese sandwich from earlier that day. There was their suitcase just sitting next to her. But no sign of her sister.

"Carol?!" she called out at the top of her lungs. No response. She climbed to her feet, her legs were shaking. "Carol?!" she called again. No response. She looked around, panic welling up in her. Her sister was gone. And not just her. Everything else was gone as well. Her town, the road, everything she knew. And she had no idea where she was. She had been in a familiar place moments ago and now somehow... She was surrounded by odd trees, and flowers and the strangest sounds. No creature she knew made sounds like those. But there were also... voices. Nearby. A certain relief spread in her. She took her suitcase and started walking, hoping to find where the voices came from, hoping to find Carol – hoping NOT to find their stepfather.

But what she would find, she had most certainly not expected. As she got closer to the voices, she realised they were fighting, a man and a woman, a sound all too familiar to her.

"Are you honestly telling me how to run _my_ ship?" the man asked in a most annoyed voice.

"_Run_ your ship? All _you_ have been doing lately was _crash_ your ship. Some Captain you are!" the woman replied.

Alice wandered closer and saw where these voices were coming from. But believe it, she could not. There, in the woods before her, was a ship. A rather large one as well, nicely painted but obviously crashed. How on earth it had gotten there she did not know. There was no water nearby and it did not look like there had been any in recent history. Yet the ship was still wet, like it had just left the ocean. She saw a figure move on deck, a man in a black coat, short black hair and the brightest blue eyes, even in the dead of night.

"Gods, give me the strength not to kill this woman..."

Alice woke from her nearly frozen state.

"Hello! Hello!" she called. Instantly the attention of the fighting couple was drawn towards her. The woman appeared next to him, a tall woman, beautiful, with long dark hair, fair skin and eyes that – much like his – still had the sea in them. The man leaned on the railing of their ship and smirked.

"Hello to you too, lass. What brings you out here at a time like this?" he asked, most charming. In response to which the woman rolled her eyes and slapped the back of his head.

"Stop it. Men! Get her up here." she said and set movement in motion on deck. A ladder was lowered by a number of hands and Alice rushed to climb it with her suitcase. It was not an easy task, one of the men noticed so he climbed down, took her luggage up and she followed him. By the time she had reached the deck, her suitcase was wide open and they were inspecting all her belongings.

"Wow. Rude." She declared utterly perplexed. The blue eyed man who had previously spoken made a big gesture as if to welcome her.

"I won't be called rude, that would be a first. The name's Killian Jones, welcome aboard my vessel, the Jolly Roger. As you might have guessed, I am the Captain."

"Or so he says..." the woman commented. The Captain rolled his eyes.

"Milah, our First Mate. No idea how that happened..."

"Sleeping my way to the top." the woman replied with a smirk that made Alice grin. She was the only woman among the crew, as far as Alice could tell, and the men respected her. That said a lot about her. "What brings you to these parts, girl?"

"If I only knew... One minute, I am in my hometown with my sister... the next, I am here and my sister is gone." Alice explained. The woman named Milah frowned.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

The Captain and his first mate exchanged an alarmed look.

"Portal Jumper..." he mumbled, before he turned his attention to the girl again. It was obvious she had not come from this realm. He had travelled many seas and seen many lands but none where people appeared as she did. A girl in an inappropriately short pair of trousers, a shirt that was so wide on her that it slid off one of her shoulders. Her hair was blonde, almost white blonde and reached down her back, the tips were slightly blue, as if she had dipped them in colour, and she was wearing a piece of cloth tied to a ribbon to keep the fringe out of her face. Her face was simple, her eyes brown. Definitely a stranger. "And your sister, is she here too?"

"I was hoping you could tell me that." She snapped back. Not angry at him but angry at herself. For abandoning Carol, not knowing where she was or what had happened and somehow ending up on a weird pirate ship in an equally weird forest. While she spoke, she snatched her belongings back from the pirates, stuffing them in the suitcase and closing it before she looked up at the Captain and his first mate. The woman looked truly compassionate.

"Sorry about this..." She began, Alice looked at her irritated. And the next moment, someone covered her head with a bag and she was being pushed to the floor. Alice screamed and tried to fight the pirates off, but her hands and feet were being tied.

"Take her to the brig. Careful that she doesn't jump away." She heard the voice of their Captain as she was lift off the ground and carried away somewhere.

Killian Jones turned towards the first mate – forgotten the argument they had had only moments before. "A Portal Jumper could be our way out of here."

"My thoughts exactly." she confirmed with a nod. "It's a shame though, she seems nice enough."

"Well it's not like we'll hurt her. We'll figure out where we are and if it's worth staying longer and as soon as we're done here, she can take us and the entire ship to another realm. Then for all I care, she can go wherever she wants, find her sister or whatever. And I dare say in her garments, she's better off in the brig than wandering around out there insulting things." He explained with a shrug. Milah listened attentively then smiled.

"I knew you weren't as cruel as you pretend to be." She declared. He rolled his eyes.

"Not if it can be avoided." He confirmed with a shrug before offering his arm to the woman. "Now, shall we see where we ended up?"

She nodded and took the Captain's arm.

"Aye, Captain."


	3. Imaginary Dragons

**Imaginary Dragons**

She was being tossed in the brig, heard the bars close when she tried to rip the bag off her head. She flew around and just saw the men taking their leave.

"Hey! How dare you, you barbarians?! Let me out of here!"

They didn't listen. And only moments later, she found herself alone under deck. The bars were properly locked and no rattling and screaming would get her out of here. In frustration, she sat down on the cold, wet wooden floor. _Carol_... God, she hoped the little bug was alright! What could have possibly happened? She was rather sure – no matter how crazy it sounded, for some reason she... she knew she was not in her world anymore. Yeah, completely crazy, she was well aware of that. But she was quite sure she had somehow stumbled into an entirely different world.

What she thought remarkable was the fact that it didn't scare her at all. She expected panic or fear to overwhelm her after stumbling into a different world. But nothing like that was the case. Quite contrary, she felt strangely familiar to this world. Almost like she had been here before...

She heard the crew outside, ridiculously amused by her belongings in the suitcase. And suddenly she remembered. It was idiotic, she knew that but she had to try. She pulled her phone from her pocket.

No connection.

She should have known. She sighed in frustration. But when she heard a soft chuckling, she looked up.

"Who's there?!"

"No one in particular."

Alice got to her feet. The cell was rather dark but she could most certainly say that there was no one in here with her. She walked to the bars, trying to see beyond them and-

And stumbled back with a soft shriek when out of thin air, a head popped up before her. Not just any head, but a cat's head. Green and blue was its fur and its eyes a gloomy green. Shimmering smoke was surrounding it and all of a sudden, the cat head grinned widely at her. "Hello Alice."

"How the actual... how do you know my name?!" she snapped alarmed. Ah, there it was. Panic. After all. But who wouldn't panic in the face of a talking cat head floating mid air in front of them?

"I know many things." The cat head replied in a smooth tenor voice and its head turned upside down, still grinning. "Your name is Alice Liddel. You are looking for your sister Carol. And this very world you so carelessly stumbled into once again... is Wonderland."

"Once again?" – those were the words in the cats statement that struck her the most. Once again? Had she... been here before? Was this strange familiar feeling she had not just... a feeling?

"Yes, once again. Have some unfinished business here, don't we?" the cat head asked. Alice reluctantly came closer to the bars.

"You say you know many things... then how do I get back to my sister?"

"It's all up to you."

"Me."

"_You_ are the Portal Jumper. _You_ have the gift. Time and Space and Realm, none of it matters to you. You are just like me. You can be everywhere, everywhen. All you have to do... is jump..."

The cat turned to mist and its head popped up again, right in front of her, not even caring for the bars. She stumbled back, not so much because she was scared, but because she was surprised by the sudden proximity. "Find the Caterpillar. He can teach you."

And it was gone. Alice gasped.

"Wait! Don't leave me here, you got to let me out!" she protested and slammed against the bars. And the gate flung open. Her mouth stood agape for a brief moment, then she did indeed run. She didn't even think twice. She left the cell, peeked on deck for any crewmembers watching and when she was sure no one noticed, she rushed over to the rail, grabbed a rope and down she was. Back on the moist forest ground and away from the ship as fast as she could. It wasn't easy getting through, but she'd make her way. Anything was better than staying on board that ship where she'd just be locked up anyways. And she had someplace to be. Find the Caterpillar.

* * *

They had left the Jolly Roger behind. The forest surrounding the ship was dark and strange, the creatures dwelling here were of the most unusual kind. Looking like tiny rocking horses but flying like... well, horse flies. Giant flowers in colours that they did not even have words for, that had faces and seemed to watch them. Ruins overgrowing with whispering vines. There were no roads, all Killian could do to find their path through this unusual jungle was cut through branches and hedges with his swords.

"This will take all night." He finally sighed exhausted.

"What do you think brought her here? A girl, on her own, with a suitcase... you think she ran away from her family?"

He froze and looked back over his shoulder. Milah was lost in thoughts, he could tell. It was odd how well he knew her. How long had she been on board the Jolly Roger now? Roughly a year? And how often did she stand on deck, look over the sea with that exact same look on her face? He knew she was conflicted about it all. Running away, leaving her home behind. Not the man, no. And by the Gods he couldn't blame her. That Rumpelstilzkin... a coward right from the book. But the boy... the boy was not at fault. He remembered that evening in the tavern where they had first met. She was radiant, how could he not have noticed her? A woman who had no reservations to enjoy the moment. By now he knew that she had enjoyed her time in that tavern so much because at her home, she had very little she enjoyed, very little to look forward to. Her family had not even arisen in their first conversation. She had mentioned her husband, briefly, described him as 'a little man of no meaning'. And he had been sure that woman would not return home with her husband that night. But then a new variable appeared in the equation.

The boy. Baelfire, her son. And a child's plea for his mother had changed her mind. When she showed up at the pier the next day, he was surprised. He had not expected to be seen off by anyone. But she had note come there to wish him fair winds on his journey. She had come to join them. Like this girl – bags packed, ready to leave everything behind. And he believed that was the very issue that bothered her right now. That this girl reminded her so very much of who she had been not a year ago.

"She said she was looking for her sister. Maybe they are orphans."

"You mean maybe their parents abandoned them, too?" she replied bitterly.

He flinched. He knew no matter what he said, in her ears everything would sound like _'You are a terrible mother and should be ashamed of yourself'_. How often had these thoughts crossed her mind? He knew it wasn't true. Milah was far from a terrible mother – she had been unhappy and what good is an unhappy mother to any child? She had surely done the child a favour – everything was better than growing up with people who didn't love each other or were fighting over every little thing, he believed that. But he could of course understand her conflict of leaving her child. No matter how she looked at it, she felt that she had abandoned her son and it hurt her.

"That's not what orphaned means, love. Her parents might have died. You didn't abandon your son, you left him in his father's care. He has a parent who loves him, and you love him. Don't feel guilty for doing something that makes _you_ happy. There is only one person in the world you owe happiness and that is yourself." He insisted as he placed a hand on her cheek, his fingers in her dark curls. She looked up and smirked.

"You have no child." She replied. That was true, he knew he couldn't possibly understand what it meant to leave behind a child. But he liked to imagine that it was the most difficult decision one could ever make, a decision that would haunt someone for the rest of their life, a humbling decision. And, in some cases, a decision that was best for the child. Wasn't growing up with only one parent better than growing up with two parents who hated each other, or one parent that was so unhappy they couldn't even express their love for their child properly anymore.

"You know... we could go back for him." He suggested. It was something he had been considering for a while now. Because for some reason, seeing Milah so unhappy about the choice she had made, troubled him. He had offered her to stay on his ship because he thought it would make her happy. But it hadn't.

She looked up with a smile.

"Killian Jones, you never seize to surprise me."

"I'm serious, we could go and get him. Always room for a little cabin boy."

She laughed. And that was worth the possible trouble that would arise with realising such an idea. He couldn't hold back a smile, and then forced himself to stay stern. "However, before we make any such plans, we need to figure out a way out of this realm. And in order to do that, we need to figure out where we are, hopefully without getting completely lost in this jungle."

And as if the fates themselves listened in, he stumbled out from the trees and onto a wide, open plain. Intuitively he held Milah back, had his sword raised. This place provided little to no possibility to seek cover from a possible attack and he was not comfortable with it. Not at all. Before them lay a wide, open land that was not in fact natural rock, but tiles. White ones and deep, bloody red ones, the colour dark and unkind in the moonlight. There was no sound to be heard, no birds or funny creatures were out here, as if they avoided the dark plain for some mysterious reason. In the distance he could make out a ruin of what could once have been a castle with a collection of statues in front of it that looked remarkably like...

"Is this... a chess board?" Milah suddenly asked, a deep frown on her forehead. Killian took a step back.

"Oh... oh I think I know where we are, love. And it is not a good place to be... not at all..."

"Why? What is this place?" Milah asked worried. Killian stepped back, pushing her back towards the border to the jungle with his arm.

"I have read stories of this world. This is Wonderland. And we just stumbled onto the Dragon's chess board."

"The dragon? What dragon?!"

Before Killian could think of a reply, a horrible screeching noise ripped through the silence around them. It had come from the ruins and the two intruders were frozen to the spot for a moment. Then they saw it. A large pair of wings appearing on the highest tower of the ruin. Then a massive body, stretching into the moonlight.

"Run." whispered Killian. Milah looked from the ruin to the Captain and back when the creature on the tower was in the air with one smooth stride. And on its way towards them. "Run!" he repeated, louder this time and she obeyed. They both flew around and ran for their lives. The dragon was approaching with horrible screams of fury, its shadow rushed over them and suddenly, Killian pushed her out of the way before rolling off the other way himself. A gush of flames burst between them, the heat so intense he had trouble breathing for a moment. The chessboard was lit on fire. He had his sword drawn when the dragon landed, surrounded by flames.

It was the ugliest creature he had seen in quite a while. Its teeth to large for its face, its red eyes almost like those of a bug, the scales a strange shimmering black and a stroppy mane on its head and back. It was a scrawny creature, probably there was not enough meat around here to feed something so large and vicious. Which meant it was starved and they looked probably like a walking midnight snack, conveniently placed on the silver platter that this chess board was.

Killian tried to get to his feet, but the dragon's tail slammed him down. He had his sword ready, fighting back the claws of the creature, its jaws when it tried to snatch him. But what was even worse than the sight and sound coming from that creature was the smell. It's breath of rotting meat and sulphur mixed with something swampy and disturbingly disgusting. While his sword in the one hand, he covered his nose and mouth with the other arm, in hopes of not exposing himself to that smell nay more than necessary but it was everywhere.

It was Milah who pulled him to his feet eventually, her own sword raised against the dragon that was screaming at them. She was not yet a particularly proficient swordfighter, but she could stand her ground – and they were two. Both blades raised they walked backwards towards the woods. The creature didn't follow. Why, they couldn't tell. It had its grim gaze fixed on something but they didn't dare turn away from it until they reached the border of the forest. They could see the dragon spread its wing and fly back to its castle in the distance. Only then did Killian dare breathe. The air was still full of its stink but began to clear. He turned around. And there, utterly shocked between the trees, stood the girl that was actually supposed to be in the brig on board Jolly Roger.

He raised a brow in disbelief.

"Why does no one on my ship do what I tell them to do?" he sighed.

"What the hell was that?!" the girl asked loudly, chasing up a number of birds – ironically the raging dragon didn't bother them, but a loud speaking girl did.

"That... was a Jabberwock." The Captain replied and put away his blade before turning to Milah. "Thanks."

"Any day, Captain. Wouldn't want anything to happen to that pretty face of yours." she teased. He grinned, then turned back towards the girl, pointing at her nose.

"_You_ should be in the brig."

"I am not your prisoner!" she protested.

"Actually, you were in there so nothing would happen to you. You are quite precious cargo, you know?" the Captain declared, placed a hand firmly in her neck to direct her back through the woods, to their ship.

"Because I am a Portal Jumper?"

"Aye, that you are. And you will get us out of this realm. I will not stay in Wonderland a minute longer than I have to."

"Well sorry to break it to you, but I have no idea how to... portal jump, or whatever you call that. So I can't get you anywhere."

"If that's true." The Captain began and leaned closer, his bright blue eyes piercing right through every defence she had. "Then you better figure it out, or we're all dead meat out here."


End file.
